Background

Over 200,000 somalian refugees have fled their country since the 1990s because of the food crisis and the conflict fueled by the Al Shabaab armed group which considerably prevents food aid from being distributed. The refugees are mainly families of nomadic herders and farmers from the districts of Gedo, Bay and Bakool.

Ethiopian camps on the Somali border, in the region of Dollo Ado, now host more than 140,000 refugees, a number that is constantly growing.

The program

In December 2015, Libraries Without Borders and Save the Children deployed two Ideas Box in two Somali refugee camps, Malkadida and Bokolmanyo, in the Dollo Ado region in Ethiopia, close to the border with Somalia.

The two Ideas Box are destined to promote children's rights in particular, through access to quality education as well as safe espaces for reading, exchanging and participating in activities.

Both Ideas Box were inaugurated in the presence of Save the Children, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Ethiopian Agency for Refugees and Returnees Affairs (ARRA).

Training sessions accompanied the inauguration of the program. Representatives of Libraries Without Borders visited the field from 10 to 17 December 2015 to accompany and initiate the Save the Children staff in the use of the Ideas Box, as well as in their maintenance and the organization of activities.